I was watching a local news channel last night, and there was a story about the taxi cab shortage in Calgary.

The reason this is a huge concern is because of the holidays, which means more drinking, and without cabs, more drink and driving. It’s a fact, drinking and driving does go up during the holidays.

So with more drinking and driving, shouldn’t there be more check stops? Nope! At least according to the Calgary Police; during the news story on the taxi cab shortage they had a spokesperson from the Calgary Police stating that it’s not their job to baby sit the population, and that they will not increase check stops.

Okay, I agree, you don’t need to baby sit the population. But your job is certainly to protect the public! It’s not just about protecting the people who get behind the wheel drunk; it’s more about protecting the other innocent motorists and pedestrians who get murdered by drunk drivers everyday across Canada.

Ever since moving out to Calgary, I’ve only ran into one check stop. When I lived in Penticton BC, we would run into dozens of check stops each month. I hear about so many more drunk driving stories here in Calgary, than I did in BC. When I moved to Alberta and attended high school, neither the teachers nor anyone else from the school ever talked about drinking and driving, not even once. In BC, I couldn’t go for a month of schooling without hearing about drinking and driving and its implications.

If I’ve only ran into one check stop, I bet you there are plenty of Calgarians who have never ran into one. So, what stops them from getting behind the wheel drunk? Common knowledge that drinking and driving is bad? I fear that a lot of people don’t know the seriousness of drinking and driving, as they don’t seem to be teaching it enough in school in Alberta. Also even if a person does know drinking and driving is dangerous, but they can’t get a taxi cab until 45 minutes later, and they know that the chances of running into a check stop is very low, they might make a bad judgement call and get behind the wheel drunk.

So it is the Calgary Police’s job to protect me and other citizens. By not implementing more check stops, they are failing to do this. It is also the job of our educational system to teach about the seriousness of drinking and driving, by not making it mandatory in the curriculum for Grade 11 and Grade 12 students (Those are the years I went to school in Alberta, there probably is more years that they don’t teach it.), the government and educational system is failing us.

The cab shortage is also a problem. But a shortage of cabs is not a crime, drinking and driving is, and there is no excuse for it. The police should do their job and deter drinking and driving in every way possible, and take the people who continue to drink and drive off the streets.